Online vs. Remote Teaching and Learning

While online and remote may be related, these terms actually represent two different approaches to the teaching and learning environment. Online teaching and learning is a broad term for courses that are intentionally designed to facilitate learning without the need for face-to-face, location-bound instruction. Online can include both synchronous and asynchronous elements.

At National Louis University, we define remote teaching and learning as the type of instruction we provide when an in-class session is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, involving a strategy to convert the number of hours allocated to in-class session to a digital format. We associate remote with our fully face-to-face courses, as well as with our blended courses that are a combination of face-to-face meetings and online work. Remote should only be deployed for more than one class period when announced and approved through the President and Provost's offices for a specified period of time and/or on a one-off, approved basis through your College.

What is Asynchronous Learning?

Some classes are fully online and asynchronous. The term asynchronous refers to instructor-student interaction that does not occur at a specific time. This means there are no scheduled sessions that require all students to be online at the same time. The engagement is highly flexible and occurs when the participant has time. This method works well for busy students with a full-time job and other obligations. Students are typically given a week-long window to complete assigned material. A good example is a discussion area in an online course, in which students can post asynchronously, replying to postings any time throughout the week.

One benefit of asynchronous learning is the sustained interaction you can have with your students. This learning environment promotes ongoing engagement, allowing both the instructor and students an important role in answering questions and building class interaction.

Fully online, asynchronous classes include a variety of learning materials, activities, and assessments, all within the learning management system (which is, essentially, where your courses live in the virtual environment). Many of these classes include "traditional" assignments (such as papers or presentations), with enhanced learning options that include discussion boards, quizzes/tests, and other digital tools.

What is Synchronous Learning?

Another type of online learning is sometimes referred to as remote learning or synchronous online. You will likely hear the term remote learning during times when a campus needs to shut down and offer all courses virtually. Some colleges and universities only offer synchronous online learning. Whether it is referred to as remote learning or synchronous online, it basically means that the instructor and students meet via a video conferencing tool (e.g., Zoom), instead of in-person.

As part of synchronous learning, students complete assignments and other individual learning activities outside of class meetings. Students may be asked to read/view learning resources to prepare for the synchronous sessions.

You may be surprised at just how fun and engaging synchronous online meetings can be! You can structure these sessions to be a mix of information-sharing, small group and large group discussions, debates, polls, games, and more.

In both asynchronous and synchronous online learning environments, there are ample opportunities to create community through the sharing of experiences, photos, and personal stories.

Community of Inquiry

The Community of Inquiry framework defines components and critical features of a valuable online (and blended) learning experience. The framework includes three essential components: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence.

Cognitive Presence

Cognitive presence refers to the extent to which participants are able to construct meaning through sustained reflection and communication in an online environment. Critical thinking is a key indicator of cognitive presence. Critical thinking can be fostered through activities that promote curiosity and questioning; exploration, connection, and analysis; and integration, application and transfer of learning.

Examples

1. Discussion forums designed to unpack a problem, concept, or issue, particularly where students have to present and defend their position.
2. Reflection activities that ask students to summarize their learning, discuss gaps, and comment on where they feel most confident.
3. Small group activities that ask students to examine a case study or real-world scenario and debate or discuss certain elements.

Social Presence

Social presence refers to the extent to which participants are able to authentically project themselves as they communicate in the course. Collaborative communication and the co-construction of knowledge are essential indicators. Collaborative co-construction of knowledge can be fostered through activities that invite and encourage individual sharing and social engagement, self-expression and responsiveness to others, skepticism as well as respect, and interactions that entail both challenge and support.

Examples

1. Go beyond the basics with introductory discussion boards. Many online classes have a space for students and faculty to introduce themselves and share a bit about their background. Consider a more creative approach by asking students to post a picture of a meme that describes their personality, a book that changed their life, or a photo of their favorite place in the world.
2. Try using collaboration tools that allow for real-time chat or discussion. These can be more casual and billed as a "coffee break” or other fun (optional) event.
3. Provide students with a resource on how to ask meaningful questions, respectfully, to allow for a healthy mix of skepticism, debate, and connection.

Teaching Presence

Teaching presence refers to the design, facilitation, and direction of the cognitive and social processes to achieve the learning goals in an online learning environment. Teaching presence is essential to enable the cognitive and social qualities of the online learning environment. Some key indicators include effectively mediating content, facilitating instructional discourse, and highlighting focal issues to support student learning.

Examples

1. Look for points of connection among students. Similar perspectives about an issue posted on the discussion board? Exact opposite ideas? Certain themes emerging? Call that out and connect students to continue the conversation.
2. Bookend the discussion. Start each thread with a framing post with ideas, commentary, tips or resources to help set the stage. End the week with a “final thoughts” or summary.
3. Be the information guide. Look for places where you can collate and simplify expectations, assignments, and goals. Don’t underestimate the value of a well-timed clarifying announcement, message, or video.

Download the Community of Inquiry Framework

Diversity, Equity, and Belonging

Our core values at NLU are access, innovation, and excellence. We serve a diverse student body with diverse, knowledgeable faculty trained in cutting edge teaching practices. To these ends, the principles of universal design in learning (UDL), accessibility, and culturally-responsive pedagogy (CRP) are core aspects of all our teaching.

We feel strongly that belonging is an integral part of the student (and faculty/staff) experience at NLU. Inclusion is a good first step, but belonging goes beyond this. For more information, see NLU's Strengthening Community, Engagement, & Belonging and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy pages.

D2L Overview

An LMS stands short for Learning Management System: Learning, because you use it to deliver blended and online courses, Management, because it helps you organize these courses (create them, change them, assign them to students, grade them, etc); and System, last but not least, is just a fancy word that translates to "software". 

National Louis University uses D2L (or Brightspace) as our LMS. Every course automatically has an empty course "shell" once a course is added to the schedule. In most cases, content is automatically copied from a "master" into the shell. In other cases, instructors copy content from a previous term shell, or they add their own content to the shell.

One way to think about "content" in an online course is through the lens of how Quality Matters (QM), our quality framework used as the underpinnings of course development, categorizes them. QM helpfully breaks down “content” into 3 areas:

Learning Resources/Materials. Includes faculty-created or faculty-curated materials such as textbooks, articles, and videos, as well as other types of instructional materials that help students achieve the learning objectives or competencies.

Learning Activities. Includes all the actions that students are asked to do to help them achieve the learning objectives or competencies. Similar to what the Community of Inquiry framework tells us, QM has specific standards that explicitly ask for learning activities that promote active learning and interaction within the course. More specifically, QM asks for a balance of activities that promote learner-to-learner, learner-to-content, and learner-to-instructor engagement.

Learning Assessments. Includes the measures (both formative and summative) of student achievement. Assignments, discussions, quizzes, tests, etc. all belong in this category.

D2L includes several integrated tools that can be used to support synchronous and asynchronous learning activities. D2L provides comprehensive video tutorials on how to set-up and use these tools on their YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLSxTdOzKAFOCZjXav1aCRQ.

For additional D2L support, please see our D2L Tutorials page.